Despite being world’s fifth largest apple producer, India, with huge hidden potential, has become an important target market for US Apple sector, world’s second largest producer of the fruit after China.

Banana domestication took place in Kuk valley in New Guinea around 8,000 BCE and then spread to tropical countries. Because of its easy digestibility and high energy content, the fruit was grown in sugarcane plantations in Latin America and the Caribbean islands to be fed to labourers.

If all the states adopt the Model Act, it will eventually lead the country towards a unified agricultural market with one trader licence and allow private players to set up wholesale markets by breaking the monopoly of traditional `mandis'.

It would be a major agri-reform, if at least 15 BJP-ruled states adopt the new model law -- Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitating) Act (APLM), 2017, as it provides wider options for farmers to sell produce and get better prices